Madeline Kahn Objected to Showing Her Legs in Her Audition for the Role of Lili Von Shtupp

Brooks said in the 40th anniversary Blu-ray release of the film in 2014 that when he asked Madline Kahn to see her legs, she replied, “So it’s that kind of an audition?”

He added: “I explained that I was a happily married man and that I needed someone who could straddle a chair with her legs like Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again. So she lifted her skirt and said, ‘No touching.’ ”

She got the part.